Expanded ‘American Idol’ Tops Sluggish Thursday

Reality show dominates but doesn't rise opposite repeats

On a night when the top shows on the competition aired repeats, a two-hour edition of “American Idol” carried Fox to an easy victory in key demos.

According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen, “American Idol” averaged a 3.8 rating/11 share in adults 18-49 and 12.5 million viewers overall, down a bit both from last Thursday and Wednesday of this week. It’s telling, though, that “Idol” couldn’t grow even though it faced rebroadcasts of “The Big Bang Theory,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Office.”

Elsewhere, second-place CBS hung in there with repeats of its regulars “The Big Bang Theory” (2.8/9 in 18-49, 10.7 million viewers overall), “Two and a Half Men” (2.2/6 in 18-49, 8.4 million viewers overall), “Person of Interest” (1.9/5 in 18-49, 9.5 million viewers overall) and “Elementary” (1.6/5 in 18-49, 7.7 million viewers overall). “Big Bang” was Thursday’s No. 1 show in 18-49 and total viewers.

At NBC, “Community” (1.1/4 in 18-49, 2.7 million viewers overall) couldn’t take advantage of “The Big Bang Theory” being in repeat, as it merely matched its weak delivery of last week. It was followed by encores of “Parks and Recreation” (0.9/2 in 18-49, 2.2 million viewers overall) and “The Office” (1.0/3 in 18-49, 2.3 million viewers overall), an original “1600 Penn” (0.9/2 in 18-49, 2.2 million viewers overall) and a repeat “Law & Order: SVU” (0.9/3 in 18-49, 3.8 million viewers overall).
ABC struggled on the night too with its lineup of “Zero Hour” (1.0/3 in 18-49, 5.0 million viewers overall), down a bit from its score of last week, a special “Scandal” (0.9/2 in 18-49, 3.3 million viewers overall) and a special repeat of “Jimmy Kimmel Live: After the Oscars” (0.8/2 in 18-49, 2.8 million viewers overall), which aired after the awards show on Sunday.

CW aired encores of “The Vampire Diaries” (0.4/1 in 18-49, 1.1 million viewers overall) and “Beauty and the Beast” (0.3/1 in 18-49, 0.8 million viewers overall).